Going Back To My Youth.....

Last week I got taken back to my childhood when I went to see the awe-inspiring 'The Railway Children" on at the old Euro Star platforms at London's Waterloo station. The Euro tunnel and platform were stunningly transformed into a 1000 seat venue, sitting either side of the real railway track. The best bit by far was the featuring of the Stirling Single Train, the real 66 tonne steam locomotive used in the film. The actors acted to an audience in 360 degrees, performing on huge wooden stages which were wheeled in atop the tracks. These wooden blocks symbolised different areas/rooms/places within the scene, which was really effective and interesting to watch.

It was such a surreal experience, as you walk through the old check in desks and passport control in Waterloo. There are still old fashioned signs for WHSmiths and Costa Coffee as you walk through towards the transformed auditorium, you can even visit the old VIP lounge! It is almost quite eerie as it is has gone from such a busy, active place to this desolate area which has just been left untouched for years. It was so nice to see someone make use of such a wonderful and memorable space.

Go see it, its phenomenal and such a fun, different and unique night out!

We DON'T Need To Talk About Kevin

Has anyone read 'We Need To Talk About Kevin' By Lionel Shriver? A book written from the prospective of a killer's mother, Eva. The Killer being Kevin, a teenage boy who displays little to no affection or moral responsibility towards his family or community, commonly distancing himself from people to avoid attachments.

I am not a big reader, but treasure the summer moments, by the sea or pool where you can delve into a book and actually have time to fully immerse yourself within it. 'We Need To Talk About Kevin' was a funny one for me, I took 2 weeks to reach a mere half way through the book and found it hard, dragging and non enjoyable......as usual since I have been home it has sat by my bed and I have no inclination to pick it back up. However, I have found that I cannot stop talking to people and thinking and analysing the book.It is based primarily around the idea of nature and nurture. The mother Eva does not want her baby from the moment it is conceived, and the book starts to look at whether it is, in fact this maternal hatred, rather than innate evil, which makes Kevin begin to closely resemble something of a sociopath.

Maybe I should go and pick it up again......

I Heart Maria Francesca Pepe

My year in industry hasn't just been about experiencing the design workplace. I wanted to immerse myself in what I was doing and meet interesting people who are also passionate about design. At Trace publicity, my final internship, I watched as the 'Big Boss'(Fabulous Lian) started up her own company from scratch.

I watched how she manage her time to get her company up and running whilst still working hard for the clients she rapidly gained. It was a very exciting time and her strong work ethic and magnetic relationship with the sensational Roberto (her business pa

rtner) together brought the clients flying in and I loved being there to watch it grow at such speed. From Trace I learnt that I need to work within a team that I more than just get on with. Relationships at work are vital and I giggled, smiled and loved everything about the months I had at Trace.

I met up with Lian last week for a glass of wine, or 3 (she’s an increasingly bad influence on me!) and she was telling me about her latest client th

e Fan-Tab-Bu-Lous Maria Fracesca Pepe. Born in Foggia, Italy, and destined to a life of design. Lian t

urned up in Covent Garden bejeweled in MFP’s statement metal 3D cross rings. I fell in love! Maria Francesca Pepe’s AW/1011 collection explores the “state of transition from human to animal, from life to death and vice versa as a condition of beauty.”

Leather, Metal, Wolf Fur, Teeth and Eroticism makes up her new collection “In the Woods”. I’m off back to Trace next week to help Lian with Maria’s London Fashion Week show.....lets hope I’ll be decked out in MFP’s stunningly luxurious and unique pieces for the show!

Colour the Colourless

I've always thought that selective colour photography can look at bit naff, the typical red rose or red cherry touching lips, lurched out from a seen a 1000 times unoriginal photograph; making it harsh and overly obvious.

When I got my beautiful magnificent fabulous Nikon SLR I loved playing around with the auto selective colour mode and sometimes, accidently, I got some really good selective colour photos. Being selective is a quality that every human being possess, but sometimes its more fun to select not the daringly obvious but

the things you may not see or appreciate. The trick used in this is to select the areas you want to preserve the colors, inverse the selection and use the ‘desaturate tool’ to turn the image into a black and color photo. I especially like the one above of the Teotihuacan Pyramids, as If your trying to select colour it will always work best when the selected part is full or stunning interesting colours.

I can't Help But LOVE the New LOVE cover.....

"And God Created Woman"….. Love Magazine’s September issue featuring British beauty Rosie Huntington Whiteley. This seriously photoshopped editorial has an almost cartoon-like twist, like the Caramel Bunny, Jessica Rabbit or Betty Boop. Lately there has been much debate and discussion about retouching’s perceived effects on society. Magazines and advertisers creating an ideal, which many people believe is not healthy for society. I personally believe that banning re-touching and photoshopping in magazines and advertising companies would only create more economic hardship within the design world and that just adding a disclaimer is better than an outright ban. Anyway I HEART these LOVE covers so much, me and my housemates bought three just for decor for the new flat!

Now you see it! Now you don't!

Our city is becoming the land of disposable everything. Everything is here today and gone tomorrow; after all we all want is the newest, shiniest, next best thing! The answer to London's crisis...."Pop-Up". Over the last 2 years pop up bars, shops, restaurants, boutiques, gyms, cafes (you name it) have hit London like a wild craze, and throughout my year in industry there wasn't a day when something didn't "pop-up" or down, on Regent Street.

My latest find the Udderbelly pop-up bar and venue, which usually resides in Edinburgh for the Fringe but began to ventures down south in 2009 to have a bit of fun in London! "Pop-up" could be described as almost a type of guerilla advertising, an unconventional system of promotion that relies more on energy and imagination than a big marketing budget! The rough principle of a "pop-up" is to close before us Londoners have a chance to tire and find 'cooler' pastures to reside in. "Pop-up" is very InTrend right now, and at some of these bars and boutiques you find some amazing designers exhibiting their work for free as they know people will be intrigued, inquisitive, and give their time and attention.

With the help of Gamlets 'udderly cracking' aps we managed to capture our outing in a more quirky "pop-up" manner!

Banana Coladas and Forest Fires

Just back home from a fabulous 2 weeks of Sun, Sea and Sangria with the girlies in Espana. I have found that blogging becomes quite a subconscious art. I find myself subliminally analysing everything around me, questioning why it is there and why/ how it effects me. You begin to notice things that you may not have not done before. I also find you stumble across the best things accidently..... On one of the days a large forest fire (and too many banana coladas) prevented us from getting back up the hill to our villa, so we went on a tour of the tiny town Benidoleig and realised how much of its stunning architecture we had never seen or taken in. The colours of the buildings were quirky and unique and the intricate detail of the architecture captured the history of the town; the Emerald Baron de Finestrat’s Manor House and the Cuervas de las Calaveras or Skull Caves.

I find photographs of buildings are never as effective, as they can not be touched and appreciated as architecture can. The ornate wrought iron decor used, both outside and inside, almost all of the traditional spanish homes, gives an almost labyrinthine feel and adds to the elegance of them.